Originally Posted by
InTheRain
umd... where are you with that? Do you "think" you know... or do you really know? I can only go with making a decision based on what is available right now. Because when the next groundshaking innovation comes along in cycling equipment I might just have to go with that... even though what I have at the time may be fully functional. So... if I have the $'s when that innovation comes along and it meets my goals and objectives... then I will probably buy it if I can justify that I can afford it. If not, I'll stay with what I have.
Currently, I know exactly what I want. I have exactly what I want.
When I was just starting out, I only
thought I knew what I wanted.
I really wanted a Cervelo Soloist Team. This was a while ago before they had their carbon stuff. I think it was like $2500, and I could afford it but that seemed like a lot of money for a bike. So I was going to "earn" $1 for every mile I rode on my mountain bike until I "saved" enough to buy it. After about a month of that, I decided to jump right into getting a road bike, but still didn't want to spend that much, so I went cheap and got a Specialized Allez Sport. I think it was maybe $700 or $800. I rode that for a few months until I started breaking spokes on the wheels, and looked into buying some nice new Ksyrium SLs. The shop I went to for the wheels ended up selling me on a whole new Giant TCR C3 with the wheels for $2000. Having ridden for a few months I had a better idea of what I liked and didn't like in a bike, and was able to make a better decision on my second bike. It turned out much of what I thought I wanted was not really important when I really started using it.
Originally Posted by
InTheRain
This discussion was not supposed to be about the beginning cyclist that doesn't know what he wants... but about the guy that says what kind of riding he wants to do and sets out a pretty thorough set of criteria on a bike and then sets a budget that pretty much everyone knows is too low.
If this thread was supposed to be about the guy who knows what he wants and not the beginning cyclist you didn't articulate that very well. Your initial post was a rant against the people who come onto the forums and say I want a bike for $x. The bottom line is that most of those threads are people who are beginners who don't really know what they want.
Edit: Wait, what part of "I see hundreds of
posts asking for bike recommendations by people that are new to cycling that want a lot of bike for not a lot of $ dollars $" was supposed to indicate that you were talking about experienced cyclits?